"Kingdom Key" Keyblade

As some may know, I have an awesome hobby. Cosplay. I'm such a geek; it makes me happy. I would have loved to make a new cosplay this year but with the move and all the craziness that wasn't going to happen. And not to mention, that money has gone short. So I decided to make something for my last cosplay: a keyblade.

Originally I wanted to make the "Decisive Pumpkin" Keyblade since that's the one that goes best with the cosplay. However, I couldn't because I didn't have the money to go get insulation foam and coat that with resin. I decided to make the "Kingdom Key" because it's classic and I could make it out of materials already in the house. That's right. No money was spent making this since all of the materials were here.

At this stage I had used some cardboard (the kind of the back of sketchbooks) to make the 3D shapes. It's pretty study because I braced the insides with the same cardboard and hot glue. Then I covered everything in craft foam using hot glue. A little messy finish but, again, no money to get Worbla or Wonderflex. Before moving onto the painting stage I used Modge Podge to seal it and then gesso. After that was just to apply the multiple coats of acrylic paint. Seriously, it's a ton of paint. There's at least three coats to each color.

While I was waiting for layers of paint to dry, I made the chain and Mickey charm out of polymer clay. I was praying that this would work. I had to cut three of the links in half before baking and then super glue them around the other links to make the chain. Thankfully the glue I chose is WAY strong and works very well for that and attaching it to the Keyblade.

I can't tell you how excited I am that my Halloween Town Sora cosplay is going to have a Keyblade to go with it. It'll be fun to wear it for Halloween and hopefully a convention some time in the future. And maybe I'll get the chance to make another kind of Keyblade to do the double Keyblade look. ;)